games, news Jason England games, news Jason England

'Snake The Planet': Taking Classic 8-Bit Gaming To The Side Of Buildings

It's likely you're all familiar with the simple, classic, yet oh-so-addictive game 'Snake' by now. First introduced to arcades in the late 1970s, it was when mobile phone manufacturer Nokia began pre-loading the game onto its old monochrome-display phones when it exploded into the public consciousness, where it has remained ever since. Now, a team of media artists and computational designers – known by the name Mobile Projection Unit (you'll see why) – are taking the classic game one step further, and in a very big way – the side of buildings big.

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Feature, games, music Jason England Feature, games, music Jason England

All about 8-bit Metal

So someone over a couple years ago took to the tablature program Guitar Pro and inputted their song of choice at the time, and created a MIDI playback via SCXX.  Immediately, one is transported back to the likes of the Sega Master System, Atari 2600 and the Nintendo Entertainment System with a listen to merely one of these.

And henceforth, the 8-bit versions of metal songs were born in 2009: the absolute fascination being how some would suit so eloquently as soundtracks to video games, in some situations bettering the originals in an abstract sense.  The combination of the raw buzzsaw sound of the chiptune with the melodical intricacies of the songs makes for a remeniscent experience.  Basically, you'd never think metal would work in this sense; but it makes for a rather unique form of paying homage.  Take a look at some of our favourites.

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